Adrian NealAdrian Neal
Contact Point of the European Network for Rural Contact Point of the European Network for Rural DevelopmentDevelopment
Irish NRN Meeting, 1Irish NRN Meeting, 1stst December 2009, Dublin, Ireland December 2009, Dublin, Ireland
1. EAFRD- European framework for cooperation
2. What is cooperation?
3. Why cooperate?
4. What is a good cooperation project?
5. Cooperation and networking
6. EN RD CP and its tools to support Cooperation
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Axis 1Axis 2Axis 3Axis 4
Funded under Axis 4 (Leader) of the EAFRD through national or regional rural development programmes from 2007-13> Part of implementation of local development strategies by local action groups (LAGs)
Transnational cooperation is promoted by the European Commission, but not mandatory> All rural development programmes have foreseen a budget for cooperation within the Leader-axis
Was also part of Leader II and Leader+ initiatives
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TOTAL (expected) NUMBER OF LAGs
LAGs already selected: 2,003 Expected LAGs to be selected: 2,432
LAGs selection process: state of play
18 / 27 Member States have completed selection process
7 Member States will close the selection process by end 2009
RO and BG will complete the selection process by end 2010 & 2011, respectively
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€265 million = 4.8% of the EAFRD budget for Axis 4 (Leader), Inter-territorial and transnational cooperation
Italy (45,7 million), Spain (33,8 million) and Germany (30,2 million) are the Member States with the highest amounts for cooperation
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2. What is cooperation?
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1. Inter-territorial cooperation - cooperation between different rural areas within a Member State: Requires at least one LAG selected under the Leader axis Open to other local groups using a similar participatory
approach
2. Transnational cooperation - cooperation between different rural areas from at least two Member States: Requires at least one LAG selected under the Leader axis Additional partners may include other local groups using
similar participatory approaches Also possible to extend cooperation to groups in third
countries following a similar approach12
The partner from a third country could be:
Public-private partnership
Local group active in rural development having the capacity to prepare a local development strategy
An open partnership in which wider participation of local actors is encouraged (i.e. from various socio-economic sectors, including associations)
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Ireland: USA, Canada
Italy:Switzerland, Azerbaijan, Lebanon, Canada, Georgia, Syria, Turkey
Spain: Argentina, Bolivia, Colombia, Guatemala
Portugal: Angola, Argentina, Brazil, Cape Verde, Morocco, Uruguay
France: Morocco, Tunisia
Austria, Germany, Greece: Switzerland
United Kingdom: FYROM, Russia
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3. Why cooperate?
A luxury or a necessity?
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Strengthening territorial strategies & local partnerships: Can help to better meet changing needs and challenges in cooperating areas
Reaching critical mass:
Pooling resources and expertise, the total benefits are much greater than the sum of individual achievements
Improving competitiveness:
Finding new business partners & positioning on new markets help promote local products & area of origin
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Promoting innovation through new skills & approaches: Adopting new & improved operational approaches can generate knock-on socio-economic and / or environmental benefits
Developing territorial identity and raising awareness: Helping local people discover their area and history (thereby becoming true ‘ambassadors’ of their areas)
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Following a territorial approach, thereby ensuring local relevance and added value
Having a strong and clearly defined project idea that will directly contribute to realising local development strategic objectives
Going beyond simple information exchanges, to include common actions which create tangible results
Planning properly for human resources Building a strong partnership that will endure
beyond the project life
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Taking the time to establish relations between actors
Step-by-step approach Build on common
issues/challenges Early involvement of local
decision-makers
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1 . Getting ready to start Give local stakeholders a reason to get interested/involved in
cooperation Consider creating a local ‘cooperation think tank’ to identify
cooperation ideas
2. Preparing a cooperation project Finding trans-national partner(s) Meeting your partner(s) and agreeing to cooperate Preparing a trans-national cooperation application for funding Preparing a project monitoring framework Negotiating the financial aspects Bringing together the required resources (knowledge and technical);
and Getting the financial, legal and administrative structures right
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3. Implementing the projectEnsure: Cooperation partnership organised (action plan
accepted) Partnership formalised (validated/shared common
goals) Cooperation partnership animated (guide and move
project forward)
4. Evaluation and valorisation Monitoring (agree and use target indicators) and
evaluation Dissemination of results of the cooperation project
(so that others can benefit from the experiences)
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Effective networking can help in: Finding suitable partners Preventing groups from needing to reinvent the wheel Distributing ideas, innovations and information Making issues and challenges transparent and building connections
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5. Cooperation & Networking
Article 67 of Regulation 1698/2005 establishes a European Network for
Rural Development
To collect, analyse & disseminate information on RD
measures/programs To consolidate good rural development practice To provide information on developments in rural areas To support rural expert networks (notably for evaluation); To support national rural networks To support trans-national co-operation initiatives
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Coordination Committee & Leader Sub-Committee
Thematic Working Groups
Rural stakeholders including
LAGS
National Rural
Networks Managing Authorities
DG Agriculture
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Results revealed differences in MS’s in: Timing of decision-making, administrative
approaches and solutions. Format and detail of project applications Financial support provided for the
preparation of TNC projects Level of technical support provided for the
preparation of TNC projects
Developing an integrated European Guide to Cooperation –
recent survey:
Currently only examples from previous programming period:• Leader+ database of transnational cooperation
projects• Leader+ database of Best Practice• Publications of the Leader+ Observatory (Magazine
and ‘Best practice’ publications: http://ec.europa.eu/leaderplus
• Copies of the publications can be ordered for free [email protected]
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ENRD:http://enrd.ec.europa.eu
DG AGRI – Rural Development:http://ec.europa.eu/agriculture/rurdev/index_en.htm
Summaries of legislation – Rural Development:http://europa.eu/scadplus/leg/en/lvb/l60032.htm
European Evaluation Network for Rural Development:http://ec.europa.eu/agriculture/rurdev/eval/network/
whatwedo_en.htm
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